August 30, 2006

If you are car shopping with a 200 thousand dollar budget, look no further. The Armet Gurkha could be for you!

“Sometimes in Iraq, or hell — sometimes in Queens — even an up-armored HumVee just won’t cut it. That’s when you need the Gurkha by the armor-freaks at Armet Armored Vehicles, Inc. out of Toronto, ON. The squat and hedgehog-lookin’ 19,000 lb beast-of-an-armored-vehicle ain’t just built to shrug off a roadside bomb with its high strength ballistic aluminum armor, or stop a bullet from an AK-47 with its ballistic glass. No, it’s also pretty fast for its size — with a top speed of 93 mph. Also, considering the cost is only $200,000 — we’re kind of wondering why the US Army doesn’t ditch the $300,000+ HumVee for these bad boys.”

3 Responses to “Hummer on Steroids”

we’re kind of wondering why the US Army doesn’t ditch the $300,000+ HumVee for these bad boys.

Because the Hummer that is in use in Iraq (and any other combat zone that we occupy) is nothing like the ‘Suburban Assult Vehicles’ that Hummer is pushing on the public.

The military Hummer is designed to be simple, reliable, and easily repaired in the field. So yes, it might very well cost 300k to make each one–but they know exactly what the fault and tolerances are for every component in it. Much like the 20k hammer, it’s not about the hammer itself. it’s about the testing that hundreds of hammers went through to know what the limits for it are.

My friend got a decommissoned Hummer just recently. The older vesion–hasen’t been used since the early 80’s. You can take the entire thing apart with one wrench. I swear, everything is half-inch or 3/4 inch bolt. Not only that, it’s still got the snorkel on it–it’s completely submersible up till the snorkel on top. Rivers are no problem.